Oh crap…

If the idea of your meat being contaminated with Horse DNA sounded unappealing, you won’t like this next bit of news.

Ikea’s famous almond cakes usually contain chocolate, butterscotch and well…almonds. But a new and disturbing ingredient has just been discovered: faecal matter.

The Swedish furniture chain was forced to withdraw its cakes from 23 countries, including China and the United Arab Emirates, after traces of Coliform bacteria were found in them. Coliform is most commonly found in soil, vegetation, water and in the faeces of humans and warm-blooded animals. This discovery comes approximately one week after the furniture giant’s meatballs were withdrawn for having horse meat mixed in with the beef.

The Shanghai quarantine bureau in China has destroyed almost two tonnes of its chocolate almond cake after discovering excessive levels of the bacteria.

When Kipp wrote about the ‘horse meat scandal’ plaguing Europe, we were – much like other regional media outlets – able to explore the subject as a distant observer. Sure, many expatriates living in the UAE have relatives or friends in Europe, but it still felt almost like a detached reality. The kind where we tell ourselves that ‘it won’t happen to us,’ but that’s certainly not the case anymore.

Kipp had tried to contact Ikea in Dubai for a statement, but we are yet to have a response. However, an Ikea spokeswoman did tell AFP that “there is no health risk associated with consuming this product. But since the product does not comply with strict standards we have withdrawn concerned batches.” Are you serious?

We don’t know how you feel about it Kippers, but if reasonable standards of hygiene and quality are being branded ‘strict’ for not allowing waste-infested cakes to be sold to customers then we don’t know what the world has come to.